Autumn Leaves and Teenage Dreams

50. Sleepover

My eyes are already drooping with exhaustion by the time we make it back home. Aurora puts on a Christmas movie, but we decide on a forty-five minute short, because I'm already slouching against her shoulder and am afraid I'll fall asleep if we choose anything longer.

When the movie ends, we decide to get ready for bed. I'm nervous as I throw on my pajamas and brush my teeth. I brought a sleeping bag just in case I'm getting the wrong idea, but I haven't rolled it out yet. I take a deep breath in the bathroom and then step back into Aurora's room, finding her seated with her legs drawn close to her on her bed.

I go to roll out the sleeping bag, but she calls out to me and stops me.

"Dumbass. You can sleep up here, you know," she says. As I climb onto her bed, she adds, "I know I kicked you out last time. Sorry about that."

"It was understandable," I admit.

I sit on my knees, and we both just stare at each other. I'm not sure what exactly to do, so I lean back onto my heels and decide I should probably just get some sleep.

"So, uh, good night, then—"

Her hands grasp onto my face as she pulls me close. Our kisses start slow at first, light and gentle, before I want to be closer to her, and I crawl up into her lap, running my fingers through her hair as the kisses change in intensity. This time, my tongue makes its way into Aurora's mouth, and she lets out a small moan as she grasps tightly onto my pajama shirt and uses her other hand to squeeze me closer to her body.

We pull away to catch our breath before she leans forward to capture my lips again.She gently traces kisses around my entire face, around my jaw, down to my neck, which causes me to shudder. I am trembling, far more so than any time we have ever kissed before. I think of how, when we were in the car that evening, there was distance between us that we couldn't get around, but right now, Aurora's body is flush against mine. I can feel the heat radiating off her this time. I can hug her body close to mine as she bites and licks. Her hand is starting to crawl under my shirt, and she pauses.

"Is this okay?" Aurora asks.

I nod. "I wasn't sure what to expect when you told me you'd be home alone. I thought I was overthinking it," I tell her. I lean forward this time to suck on her own neck, and she hugs me close to her body, pressing her fingers roughly against my back.

"Do you want this, then?" she asks as a hand slides further up my shirt, coming into contact with my hot, sweating skin.

I nod. "For a while now. Do you?"

She nods and pushes me back onto her bed. We're gone from there. As Aurora holds me close, kissing, sucking, touching, feeling, I think of how far I've come from a year ago, when I barely acknowledged my sexuality, to being here now, feeling the girl I love closer to me than ever before, and I think of how happy that makes me. How happy I am to reciprocate, and how happy I am to comfortably collapse on top of Aurora later, feeling her warm skin press against mine, as we fall asleep tangled in each other's arms.

Someone's fingers are stroking through my hair when I wake in the morning. I open my eyes slowly, noticing immediately the soreness of my body. My eyes and cheeks feel crusty, and I realize it's from the tears I shed the night before, when Aurora, in her ever-loving gentleness, worriedly asked me if she had hurt me, but I had assured her that I was merely crying over how happy I was.

As the sunlight floods into the room and makes my vision clearer, I realize how closely my body is pressed against another. I can her breathing against me, while her fingers continue to nimbly move through my hair.

"Morning, my love," Aurora murmurs quietly when my eyes fall to her sparkling green ones. She's wearing her glasses, which makes me think she's been awake for a while already.